The Malik Report

That was delightful as peeling paint...The Red Wings' "B Team" never got much of a chance to get its legs under it as Teemu Pulkkinen--who's the last guy in the world to go after someone--got 5-and-a-game for boarding Mike Kostka all of 2:16 in, Mitchell Callahan also got kicked out 2:20 into the 2nd (for a similar infraction)...

and nursing 10 forwards and a patchwork lineup heavy on younger players, Detroit walked into the Stanley Cup Champs' building, against a goalie who now has a 10-and-something record against them in Corey Crawford, and as you might imagine, lost 2-0.

Updated 3x at 3:41 PM: Okay, as Paul mentioned earlier, Johan Franzen will not play in tonight's game against Chicago (8 PM, no TV, just WGN Radio's audio stream), and Brendan Smith has a wee groin issue, but based upon the interviews those of us in attendance at camp conducted, it sounds like the Wings are just being extra-cautious as usual as preseason games = not the time to aggravate injuries.

The Wings' non-game-day players practiced and headed back down to Metro Detroit after their practice, and when the game-day players fly back to the Motor City, they'll get a full day off on Wednesday, and will have a very early practice on Thursday ahead of Thursday night's Fox Sports Detroit-airing game against Boston.

The Red Wings will get a full day off after playing the Chicago Blackhawks this evening (8 PM EDT, no TV, WGN Radio), but the gents were hard at work in terms of both the players taking part in the game-day skate--minus Johan Franzen, who has a hip flexor issue--and the non-game-day guys, minus Brendan Smith, who has a wee groin tweak.

At this point in the exhibition season, the Wings just don't feel the need to aggravate any tweaks or twinges, so players are going to be sat out as preventative measures.

I haven't seen the Hawks' lineup yet, but here's what the Wings' lineup should look like based upon today's practice (and the rest of the team drove home immediately after practice ended at 12:15):

I witnessed Ken Holland, Ryan Martin and Jiri Fischer have "a talk" with camp try-out Barclay Goodrow on Monday, and 100% of the time, that's a "fish or cut bait" sign, but I chose not to ask them about their discussion as I'm still a little overly polite. Yahoo Sports' Neate Sager found out what happened via the North Bay-Nippising News...

Captain Barclay Goodrow is to join the team Thursday, the eve of the Battalion’s Ontario Hockey League regular-season opener on the road against the Kingston Frontenacs.

Right winger Goodrow, who has been in camp with the National Hockey League’s Detroit Red Wings, informed Stan Butler, Battalion director of hockey operations and head coach, via telephone of the impending return.

“He was offered an American Hockey League contract but decided to play an overage year in North Bay instead,” said Butler.

And Goodrow confirmed that he's heading back to the OHL for one more season on Twitter:

The Red Wings' 4-1 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins wasn't exactly a thing of beauty, but for a game in which the Red Wings were really just getting their feet under them, the team played very solidly. As noted in the quick take, Adam Almquist scored two goals and Pavel Datsyuk scored a beauty, and as NHL.com's highlights are still a mess in terms of embedding, we'll rely on the Wings' Twitter account for video this morning:

The Detroit Red Wings defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-1 on Monday night, and the game was expertly live-Tweeted by one Ken Kal--though we'll be in the dark thanks to a TV-and-radio-less game against Chicago on Tuesday (at 8 PM; Chicago scrimmaged on Monday night).

Every time I've gone into an NHL locker room--especially during a prospect tournament or summer development camp--I have been greeted by the unpleasant sight of little cans of chewing tobacco, snuff, snus, dip, whatever you want to call it, and it's incredibly frustrating to see usually young fellows (and usually European ones) who have worked so very, very hard to get into fantastic shape either taking a pinch or stealing a pinch from someone else's tin of Kodiak or especially Swedish stuff.

I hate to say it, but the whole dang hockey world called it. When the New Jersey Devils let Ilya Kovalchuk "retire" to avoid a massive NHL-KHL showdown and get that huge contract off the Devils' books, it was assumed that Damien Brunner would be joining the Devils.

About The Malik Report

The Malik Report is a destination for all things Red Wings-related. I offer biased, perhaps unprofessional-at-times and verbose coverage of my favorite team, their prospects and developmental affiliates. I've joined the Kukla's Korner family with five years of blogging under my belt, and I hope you'll find almost everything you need to follow your Red Wings at a place where all opinions are created equal and we're all friends, talking about hockey and the team we love to follow.